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New Bamboo Hardwood Flooring

Well... here goes my first attempt into the great blog-o-sphere (or whatever you blog savvy people call this place) :)

I love to decorate and I love to bargain hunt. And I mean hunt. I never want to pay full price for anything. I'll look at racks and racks of stuff, just to find the best looking goodies for the lowest price.

Lots of my friends ask where I get my decorating ideas and how I do it, so I thought I'd tell the story of how we're decorating and remodeling the house we bought the summer of 2009 - and how we're doing it on a shoestring. And that's what this new blog is all about.

We bought our new home knowing it needed a little TLC. It's just a few years old, but the last owners were pretty hard on it... and they had a cat. Nothing against you cat lovers, but my sweet hubby is SUPER allergic to cats so all flooring had to go (it was ugly anyway).

Literally minutes after we closed on the house, my dad and uncle came over and tore out every single piece of carpet in the place. We found out the cat really didn't like it's litter box and went wherever it wanted to go (GROSS!). My hubby and his dad put KILZ all over the floor boards to seal out any nasty stuff that the cat may have left.

We chose a lusiously dark bamboo hardwood flooring to go in our foyer, hall, kitchen and family room. (This is one of the most expensive projects I will ever blog about.) We got a great deal on it at Lumber Liquidators but I wouldn't consider it a "cheap" project. I got a deal on the installation because I have a carpenter uncle so that helped with the budget a bit.

About the bamboo flooring...

I L-O-V-E love the looks of the floor! They turned out exactly how I wanted them to look. The downside is that bamboo is soft and the wood dents easily. This is not so good when you have little kiddos running around throwing sippy cups and matchbox cars on the floor all the time. These little dents drive the hubby nuts but I say it gives the floor character. Wood floors are going to scratch and dent, it adds to their charm. :)

My biggest pet peeve is that the dark floor shows spills and smears of little hands and feet (and big feet) like crazy!! I have to clean this floor way more than our old wood floors at our old house. We had sort of honey colored wood floors before and I could go for literally a month or more (sshhhh, don't tell!) without giving that floor a good cleaning, just spot cleaning, and you couldn't really notice! (I didn't know how good I had it!) Not on this dark stuff, now it's wipe-wipe-wipe, all day long. Thank goodness they are just so dang pretty.

Here are a few before and after photos:

Foyer "before"

I like that my floor matches my table top. :)

Thanks for checking me out, please feel free to leave me a comment or suggestion, I really don't know what I'm doing just yet! Follow me so you can come back soon to see how I glazed and antiqued my kitchen cabinets.

21 comments
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Kate, honey, you won, you won!! Congratulations! I've linked to your blog via mine as the winner of the $25 TJ Maxx gift card giveaway. You are getting followers already and readers are wishing you well with your new blog!! This is sooo exciting.

Get in touch to collect your prize. always.nesting@comcast.net

Hugs, Marla

Oh, and I love your floors. They are beautiful. We had that same bamboo in our last home and yes, it was gorgeous, and yes it dented like crazy also. We adjusted, treated the floor with tenderness and tried to ignore the dents and scratches cuz it was sure a pretty floor.

Hi Kate! Congratulations on winning Marla's giveway - isn't she a dear? Welcome to blogland, you're going to love it. The floors are gorgeous! And I can't wait to see how you did your cabinets, we are going to be doing mom's for her and tips will be helpful! Kathy

First, congrats on winning the giveaway at Marla's place! Second...welcome to blogging! I love that gorgeous flooring! I have to agree with several others above...those dents add character! = ) Anxious to see some of your other projects...the shoestring budget definitely gets my attention! ; )

Found you through Marla's Blog! YOU WON THE GIVEWAWAY! Congrats! I am Nancy from OHIO. I do not have a Blog but may one day soon. I am a teacher and I work full time so... But maybe one day. I look to all of you bloggers for inspiration and frugal ways of doing things.

Your first post was fantastic. I love lots of pictures. We will be putting down a dark floor soon so I like reading your pros and cons. Good Luck with your Blog and have fun! Nancy from OHIO

Thanks everyone for your sweet comments!! And, thanks to those of you that are following me, some of you even before my first post... you are the best! Look forward to seeing you girls around blog-land! :)

Welcome aboard. I have been blogging about 7 months and have found some of the nicest and sweetest people doing so. Marla at Always Nesting is like a big sister/best friend, she is always leaving wonderful comments and cheering me on. So glad you won her give-away and we were able to "meet" you through your new blog.

I have to say...That flooring is breath taking and I am sooooo envious. I am going to show the mister what our floor could look like!

I know what you mean about the dark wood floors! In our old house, we put a beautiful dark hardwood floor in our kitchen, and it drove me crazy keeping it looking clean. haha And we didn't even have kids yet! Just the two of us to mess it up. HahaYour floors are so lovely, though. :-)

We did our floors through LL several years ago. We got a gorgeous dark Brazilian Cherry that was stunning in the showroom. It's just as stunning in our home. We LOVE the look! L

But like you, we just do NOT love how it shows every.little.crumb.dribble.waterspot and shoeprint. Arggh!!! I have a toddler, a 9 month old, two dogs, a cat, and a husband, so you can imagine, we have to mop that gorgeous floor at LEAST every other day. Oh well. When it's clean for that 10.2 seconds, I'm really in love. :-)

Bamboo tile flooring is the new trend today in interior designing. A lot of my friends in Indianapolis who have house restoration changed their flooring into this eco-friendly one. And the flooring brought their houses into new character (a strong one).